The miners who were trapped in a mine in Chile have released another video and it seems that they are in good spirits. The video is being shot by camera which has been lowered to them through a bore hole. The video shows that the workers are mostly shirtless and all bearded and have lost [...]
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This is the year of Micro Four Thirds. While Nikon and Canon still haven’t dipped their toes in this pool, I think it’s time for the average camera user to look at these things seriously and the power and elegance captured in the E-PL1 – and the affordability captured in its $599 price tag. Features: 12-megapixel LiveMOS sensor TruePic 5 image processor 14-42mm lens included Flash Live Guide Pros: Live Guide makes good photos easier Great size and weight Good video recording Cons: No optical viewfinder No stereo audio recording Lighter body materials Panasonic and Olympus have been riding the M4/3 train for quite a while now and each new device they’ve released has been met with resounding claxons of joy and then disappointment as photobloggers find and focus on the limitations of the format. I’m pleased to report, then, that the E-PL1, is one of the first M4/3 cameras that I could see using as a secondary shooter instead of – or as a back-up to – a DSLR. First, what is M4/3? It is, in short, a lens format based on the four thirds system that does not, in most cases, use the same mirror or prism set-up found in most DSLRs. Think of it as a more powerful point and shoot, like the Canon G11, but with changeable lenses. I shot with the E-PL1 for a few weeks and I found it to be a great portable camera. The kit lens is great for general shooting and the 17mm is a great for portraits and wider angle shots, depending on how you frame the scene. The real value, however, comes in the Live Guide. The Live Guide is a quick help system that changes your image on the fly by modifying aperture and focus. Using it, you can: Change Color Saturation Change Color Image Change Brightness Blur Background Express Motion Each of these features acts in real time. Blur Background, for example, gives you a nice bokeh effect in headshots while Express Motion adds motion trails to swiftly moving objects. All of these features change on the screen as you modify them. The sliders allow you to set multiple features and an onscreen guide explains how each function works. Why is this important? Because as point-and-shoot photographers begin to explore new tools, they want to recreate the photos they see in magazines and are frustrated when they shoot with standard cameras (take a look at this Answers thread. Depth of field? Aperture? What is this demonry!) A small, cheap M4/3 can do many of these tricks and using art and scene modes you can add even more to your shots. The E-PL1 falls somewhere between a Canon EOS Rebel and a G11 or, on the Nikon side, the something like the D5000 and the Coolpix P6000. It is decidedly an odd duck. Interchangeable lenses may put off some purchasers who are unsure if they want to maintain a relationship with Olympus on the long term, but presumably you can swap out lenses as more powerful M4/3 cameras come out. Obviously this lock-in is what Olympus wants but, in a way, I could see this as a second system to use alongside a more formal DSLR set-up. How is shooting with the E-PL1? First, this camera is small and light enough to carry in a bag or purse, which makes it a great solution. The 17mm lens is flat as a pancake and the majority of scenes you’ll encounter on your way can be captured by it or the kit lens with aplomb. Take this shot, for example, taken in full sunlight against a colorful background. There is a bit of a blow-out on the face but it’s a nice enough shot. In direct sunlight you get some nice effects although there is some noise in slightly less well-lit shots, as we see below (taken with the 17mm). Finally, there are wide angle shots taken with the kit lens. Click on the small image to see an example showcasing the haze of New York. I really enjoyed shooting with this camera, even without an optical viewfinder. You can purchase a viewfinder and stereo microphone for the E-PL1 but working directly on the screen was not the exercise in frustration I thought it would be. Folks used to the optical viewfinder will definitely be put off by the E-PL1 at first, but I got over it. I did, however, consistently bring the camera to my face when first started using it. In short, this camera is perfect for those who don’t want to lug around a heavier DSLR but still want to get some great shots. I worry a bit about durability, especially given the lighter composite materials used for the body, but that’s nothing a good, small camera bag can’t fix. While it won’t replace the shutter bug’s favorite piece of big glass, the E-PL1 is definitely worth some consideration.
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Short version: Half PMP, half pico-projector, and unfortunately, not quite fully baked. But the next one is going to be awesome. Features: Tiny, lightweight LED-based projection 1GB of onboard storage MicroSD slot Support for Excel, Word, PowerPoint, MP3, MP4 files Charge and access via USB Pros: Still a compact, fun projector USB connection is handy Battery actually lasts tolerably long Cons: Doesn’t support many video formats No fast-forward, rewind, or aspect correction in videos Bigger than its predecessor Full review: I’ll keep this short: the MPro150 is essentially the MPro120 with an on-screen menu, internal storage, SD card slot, and support for displaying several file formats. The projector part is almost exactly the same as the MPro120, so head on over to the original review for info on that . I can summarize for you, though: as long as you’re willing to restrict yourself to using it in a dark room or have a very small display size, the MPro150 and 120 are fun and effective. The resolution and brightness are limiting, but you know this isn’t an HD display going in. The new features in the MPro150 are welcome, but it seems pretty clear to me that the MPro170 (or whatever the next version will be called) will actually be the one to get, at least if you plan on watching any video with this thing. Let’s be fair, though: the MPro150 supports Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, BMP, JPG, MP3, and MP4. Sounds like a lot, and if you’re in an office it kind of is. Text is sharp and navigation, while a little slow, is straightforward. You can zoom and scroll easily in any of the Office formats and PDF, and photos were surprisingly sharp and vibrant (if slow to load), though line drawings and diagrams showed pixellation. It should be said, actually, that the whole on-screen display is slow to respond to button presses, though it never “forgot” any that I’d pressed. (The rainbow effect you see is in my camera, not the projector. Also, you can be significantly further away and get a good image, I just needed it bright enough for the camera) For the rest of us non-desk-jockeys, there’s no support for many files we get off the internet – FLV, WMV, MKV, MOV, OGG and so on. MP4 is a popular format, to be sure, but not even all the MP4s I threw at it worked. One I’d made and encoded myself with H264 (the MPro’s preferred format) only gave me an error message. I popped on an AVI movie and it played, but was stretched to 4:3, with no way of changing the aspect ratio. Worse, there is no way to navigate within video; you can only pause, play, and advance to the next video. I was looking forward to some Zatoichi projected on my ceiling while lying on my bed, but no. Sound is, as it was before, tinny as hell but quite loud enough; I played quite a bit of Super Mario Kart on this thing and never felt the need to pipe the sound elsewhere. You might feel differently when playing God of War 3 , though. Not of lot of bass — or any at all, really. The fan sounds a little whinier on this model when it kicks in, but I suspect that’s a unit-by-unit variation. The device itself has gained a little bulk. It’s longer, and they neglected to move the tripod mount back to compensate for it, and consequently it’s more difficult to balance on the spindly little tripod that’s included. I managed, though. The controls are changed to allow for navigation. I found the buttons a bit hard to depress, which can be trouble if you have the tripod in a perfect position, since the pressure of your finger will bend its legs. Conclusion: At just under $400, the MPro150 is no bargain. For much less (~$250), you can get its predecessor, which is fine if you’re running video from an external source. If the ability to project Word files on the wall of a dark room is something you really need, then this is your gadget. But if you want to watch movies, or load your old web video collection on a MicroSD card and have it on tap, I’d wait for the next generation. I appreciate 3M wanting to keep it simple, but media management isn’t simple, and I’m guessing 3M will learn a lot from the reviews of this generation and put out a killer product in six months or so. Product page: 3M MPro150 pico projector
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In October last year , Pentax launched a “robotic” version of their K-x entry level digital camera, a colorful variation of the conventional black model. And today, the same company, presented another “creative” approach, the “Camera-man” [JP]. It’s not a new camera (or a special version of an existing device) but a set of accessories, namely a special 52mm lens cap (which shows a smiley) and a puppet body that needs to be fixed beneath the cap. As a result, you get the Camera-man. Pentax says there are 100 different design variations for the Camera-man. The main selling points are that the accessories were created by a famous Japanese designer, 100% handmade and only available for a limited amount of time. I don’t know who’d be interested in turning his or her camera into something like this, which is why in this case it’s not a tragedy the Camera-man is Japan-only. Each design costs $33.
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Now that winter is drawing to a close in most of the country (it’s still snowing here in the Sierra Nevadas), it’s time to think about getting out and taking more pictures. As a photography enthusiast, I know there’s a few things that I consider critical whenever I’m out shooting, things are I don’t leave home without. Tripod: If you are concerned about taking tack sharp pictures, don’t trust the vibration reduction on your lens. Personally, I use a travel sized tripod (like the GorillaPod , or an Ultrapod ). Now, some would recommend a larger size tripod, but in my experience there’s a few draw backs. First off, unless you go with carbon fiber and spend upwards of around $300 (for a good one), you’re going to end up packing around something heavy. Second, it’s not always possible to just spread out the legs of a tripod wherever you like. I’ve found that a mini-tripod is much lighter, and more useful in most cases then a full size tripod. Strap: The best camera strap I’ve ever found is the Black Rapid R-Strap . I learned the hard way not to depend on the factory strap, and getting my camera off from around my neck was one of the best things I ever did. Black Rapid has also improved the attachment system between the strap and the camera so you don’t need to depend on a small piece of plastic to keep your camera secure anymore. Bag: Being outside, you need to travel light. The best way to carry your gear (like that tripod, or extra lenses) is in a camera bag. Since you’re going to be outside shooting, I’d say travel light and go with something like the Domke J-5XC . I had a chance to try one out recently, and I found that it’s the ideal size for shooting in the outdoors. It’s also got the best strap I’ve ever seen on a camera bag. The J-5XC is one of Domke’s smaller bags, but you want to travel light when you’re shooting outdoors. I recommend a shoulder bag because in my experience, a backpack is more of a pain in the butt then it’s worth. You have to try and find somewhere to put everything down, remove the backpack, get at your gear, put the pack back on, etc. With a shoulder bag it’s easy access, and I’ve actually rested my camera on my gear bag more then once in order to stabilize for a shot. Storage: I prefer to bring my netbook with me, but there are other storage solutions out there. Regardless of what you use, it’s a good idea to backup your pictures off of your memory card at the end of the day. You never know when your card is going to be corrupted, stolen, or just plain lost. If I’m shooting at multiple locations (say in Yosemite, for example) I’ll back up my shots after coming back to the car. It’s a shame to go on that once in a lifetime trip, and lose everything. It just makes sense to back up, particularly if you are on an extended shoot lasting multiple days. For me, a netbook serves dual purposes, so it’s the ideal solution. If you’re looking for something lighter then a netbook, you might also want check out some of the portable camera backup systems available on the market. Be aware however, that these devices can cost as much as a netbook for the same amount of storage. Incidental Gear: There’s a few things your should carry just for general purposes. Personally, I wear a Suunto Core Light Black (because it warns of inclement weather, and also tells you the sunrise and sunset times), I always carry a multi-tool (like the Leatherman Skeletool ), and I shove all my other stuff (like cellphone, wallet, GPS, etc.) in my Evolution Travel jacket. Of course, the biggest thing is to get out there. You can’t take pictures of that sunset if you are at home sitting on the couch, and you’ll never get that great sunrise shot if you are still in bed. It doesn’t matter what camera you use, what matters is that you have a camera with you. So what gear do you carry? What do you consider to be essential for when you leave the house?
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We told you about Sony’s new concept cameras that were announced during PMA , and now that things have calmed down a bit, we’re starting to see some details. Specifically, what’s going on with the menu system, and what exactly is going to make these cameras so interesting. It appears that Sony is taking menuing way beyond the basic face detection and background templates. Instead, how about being able to adjust the depth of field from the LCD? How about using a touch screen to adjust all this stuff, and using it to be able to make adjustments to the white balance, or color hues? Sound interesting? Of course, you’ll have the typical picture modes and such, but it’s looking like the menuing system will definitely be where it’s at. And keep in mind, this an EVIL class camera , so you can expect quite a bit more of it then you would from your basic point and shoot. [via Geeky Gadgets ]
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Here’s something old, but definitely cool and worth showing you. Livejournal user Igor113 posted some pictures from his trip to… somewhere in Russia. He loves to travel and take pictures, and these are some extremely cool photographs of some rusted and cool equipment. Igor did apologize for the quality of his camera though, and requests that you don’t kick his legs. The submarine pictures aren’t the only cool things on Igor’s site, he’s apparently traveled all over the EU and taken many many pictures of defunct Russian military vehicles and aircraft. I’d definitely recommend checking out some of his other posts as well.
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Short version: An excellent camcorder with few faults except one big, fat, glaring one: it only records in 1080i. What year is this again? Features: Extremely light and compact 20x optical zoom and two levels of image stabilization 40GB of built-in storage Touch-sensitive controls (not touchscreen) MSRP: $499 Pros: It really is very light and compact Image still sharp at 20x zoom, stabilization works great Focuses extremely close Cons: 1080i is your only video option (several quality levels) Touch controls feel inexact Full review: 1080i is a technology that is, at this point, several years past its pull date. TVs universally support 720p and 1080p, consumer editing software is designed around working in the format you distribute in, and web video (by far the most popular distribution method) is 100% progressive, usually at 30FPS. So it didn’t even occur to me that this JVC camcorder might shoot interlaced video. It doesn’t say “1080i” anywhere in the product announcement — only “Full HD,” — so they can’t be proud of it. And in fact, I didn’t even notice until I shot some sample video for the review and pulled it up to edit. The following picture should not be viewed as representative of the overall quality of the video from this camera, but rather a simple indictment of interlaced video: (click for the full version, where the interlacing is very clear) Believe me, if you care at all about your video quality, that’s all you’ll notice even if you shoot with the best 1080i camcorders out there, of which undoubtedly this JVC is one. But, as the saying goes: that’s like being the thinnest kid at fat camp. But let’s leave that topic for a minute (I’ll address interlacing in a separate post soon) and look at the camera itself. Now, I’d like to be very clear here that apart from the interlacing and some clumsiness in the menu, I found this camera absolutely delightful. Here’s an idea of its size: As you can see, it’s quite a cute little bugger. It’s just big enough that you can grip it normally (like a cold beer, in fact) and it’s just heavy enough that you know it’s there. They say it’s the smallest and lightest traditional-style HD camcorder out there, and I believe it, but the whole class of pocket cams pretty much beats it, though their lenses are garbage one and all. My hand rested on the zoom rocker naturally and the record/stop button is well-placed as well. I tended naturally to support it with the other hand, since the shake of your hands will definitely show on such a lightweight device. Speaking of shaky hands, let’s take a look at a sample video. You may have noticed that this video review is not in 1080i. It’s in progressive HD at 30FPS on Vimeo, and it would be similar (though slightly lower quality, I find) on YouTube, Blip, DailyMotion, or any number of sites out there. Not to mention that H.264 (not AVCHD) is being adopted as part of the HTML5 web standard, and soon you may not need to upload to a web video sharing site at all — that is, after you re-encode your 1080i, a step you could skip if you were shooting H.264 to begin with on one of the many pocket cameras out there. There are four modes: UXP, XP, SP, and EP. They all record the same quality audio, but recording 15 seconds of video yielded file sizes of 45, 32, 26, and 11 megabytes of data, so you can extrapolate that out however you like. It’s difficult to show the difference between the formats without looking at the raw video files, so I’ll just say that quality was significantly effected in SP and EP, but XP looked almost as good as UXP with a significantly reduced file size and bitrate. So you can cound on about 130MB/minute, or a gig every seven minutes. That’s a bit large, but not unheard-of. The GZ-HM340 has 40 gigs of space inside, and the GZ-HM320 has 20GB. Plenty for almost any situation. As for quality, well, it’s interlaced, so it looks nice when things are still and terrible when there’s action or movement. Low light was pretty damn muddy, so like most small camcorders you’ll want to stick to the brights. Skew (the wobbly look of consumer-level video resulting from slow sensor pull-down) is really pronounced when you’re zoomed in, as you can see when I was focusing on the plant in the bottle in the video above. But that’s to be expected. The zoom and image stabilization worked great. The zooming is pretty loud, though; if you’re in a quiet environment the mic will definitely pick it up. There are two levels of stabilization, one which crops the video a bit and realigns it digitally. I found them to be plenty effective and have no real trade-off unless they drain the battery a bit more. Here are some 100% center crops of the recording modes; as you can see, there is some difference but mainly in the details, like type and the cartridge illustration. Then there are grabs from a high-light and low-light situation you can inspect for noise. Click for the full-size version. Not exactly amazing, but it’s decent. You can also record “for upload to YouTube,” which results in a similarly sized file to XP mode. I couldn’t spot any difference, really. The paper and virtual manuals aren’t very enlightening on this point. You can also trim stuff and re-encode for YouTube in-camera, but the interface doesn’t really lend itself to that at all. Note that there are no other modes of recording; it is 1080i at 60FPS or nothing. There are few, precious few ways of viewing interlaced content these days; everything is progressive and nothing uses 60FPS. The camera claims to “upscale” its 1080i to 1080p for HDMI out, which seems specious. If it could create 1080p video, why wouldn’t that be an option to record? I’m guessing it just deinterlaces on the fly. It does have many outputs: HDMI, component, and plain video out. These outputs are easily accessible on the panel behind the LCD, and for charging and PC connection there is USB and power underneath a little hood above the battery. There are no issues at all with these, all functioned well and are conveniently placed. The LCD itself uses what they call “laser touch” for navigation, which is… well, it works for the most part, but four buttons on the side would have been just as functional, and rather less prone to mistaken touches and clumsy movement. You can use any part of the touch panel as a button, or slide your finger up and down it. It’s rather small, though, so you might accidentally pull up the zoom menu instead of changing the stabilization level. The little touch buttons on the bottom are responsive, though. It’s not a big issue, but if you have large hands it could be troublesome. It also includes a time-lapse mode and a auto-record mode that records upon detecting changes in contrast. Handy if you like that, but these things are also available on some point-and-shoots. Conclusion: You may think I’m being a little harsh on this camera. Well, yes, I am – and I’ll be just as harsh on any camera as long as they continue using 1080i. JVC, Sony, Canon, and others still recording to interlaced AVCHD are just running down the clock, trying to sell as many of these outdated cameras before people catch on to the idea that interlacing is something we should have left behind a decade ago. The camera itself is great, and if you truly don’t care that you’ll be recording interlaced video, then you’ll love it. But if I were you, I’d wait for JVC and the rest to get with the program and buy the 1080p version that will probably be coming out next year. Product page: JVC GZ-HM340
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Here’s an interesting item, from artist Sascha Pohflepp. It’s called Blinks and Buttons, and it’s a “blind camera.” Possessing no lens and no viewfinder, the “camera” still takes a picture when you press the big red shutter button. What it does is tracks the exact time that the button was pushed, and then goes out and searches for another image taken at that exact time. Once the camera finds one, it displays the image in the LCD on the back of the camera. Sascha’s “Buttons” are part of a larger art project called “ Blinks and Buttons .” [via Make ]
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If you really, truly are a Doom fanatic, you likely can’t get enough even though it has pretty much been ported to every single phone, handheld, and platform. You can even play it in your seat-back system on Virgin America . But like I said, some need it all day every day, and maybe this little hack is for them. Doesn’t really look like the best Doom experience you can have, but there’s something special about it. The Digita OS on old Kodak digital cameras was around long enough for people to hack stuff onto it — apps and such, you know. And although JJ, the creator, acknowledges that he could have put MAME and other stuff onto this little box, he wanted it Doom -only. And who can blame him? Basically he took the guts of the camera and put them in a new case with a revised button board so he wouldn’t be playing with a wonky d-pad and some function buttons. It’s an ugly devil, sure, but like I said, there’s a special something about hacks like this. I think, though, I’d still prefer a Pandora. [via Hack a Day ]
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